AWE Club – Functional Skills English

Lindsey is an experienced teacher and has worked with many Home Educated students. She understands her students are all individuals and will endeavour to help them to get the best out of the course and aim for a successful outcome. She is used to students with anxiety and will gently encourage them and help to build their self-confidence. We are happy to accommodate children’s preferences around webcams and microphone being on or off or similar needs.

Course details – Two weekly lessons for one hour each.

Functional Skills are UK recognised qualifications. Their focus is on problem-solving in real-life situations, skills you might use in everyday life and the workplace. This course and the exams can be taken as stepping-stones to GCSE or IGCSE or in some circumstances as an alternative. The tests are taken at a Functional Skills test centre, under exam conditions. They don’t have set exam dates, so you can take them whenever you’re ready. Parents are responsible for booking the exams at a local exam center. AWE students can get a discount at T&E centres.

Level 1 is pitched at the same level as a GCSE grade 3-1 (D-G)
Level 2 is aimed at GCSE grade 9-4 (A*-C)

Functional Skills English – Pearson EDEXCEL

This consists of three sections- ‘Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. Exams can be either paper-based or online.

The Reading paper – This contains three texts that are accompanied by a series of relevant questions and ,here, students learn about the following-
Layout features, also known as organisational features such as’ headings, paragraphs, bullet points, numbered lists, text boxes, etc.
Language features, such as similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia.
Biased and unbiased texts. How to determine fact from opinion.
Comparing two or more texts and using comparative language, such as ‘ juxtaposing and ‘antithesis.

The Writing paper -This consists of two tasks in the exam. Students learn how to produce formal and informal letters, emails, leaflets, articles, etc.
They learn how to write compound and complex sentences, use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation and they learn how to produce work that is cohesive and coherent. There is a word count for each task.
Speaking and Listening- students are given a choice of topics upon which to speak and they choose one topic that they research and present to a group of other Functional Skills English students . Questions are asked, after the presentation and there is a group discussion. Sometimes, students use flip charts, handouts or Powerpoint presentations with which to present their topics.

Useful Link
https://he-exams.fandom.com/wiki/Functional_Skills